BofA Haunted by Countrywide Deal Wall Street Journal. We’ve pointed it out before, but we said this was a remarkably stupid deal from the get go (as in 2007, when BofA had merely bought a stake in Countrywide).

Despite Fears, Owning Home Retains Allure New York Times. This shows how susceptible poll/survey results are to how the question is phrased. Other surveys have shown record high levels of people disenchanted with home ownership.

“”Farkas, 58, oversaw the “triple-selling” of $900 million worth of mortgage loans to Colonial, Ocala Funding and Freddie Mac

Kissick called to say the loan in question, which Fannie Mae had paid for, had in fact been sold a few months earlier to Freddie Mac

Fannie Mae’s loss mitigation team in Atlanta discovered several delinquent Fannie Mae-owned loans in the name of Farkas and other members of Taylor Bean’s senior management. A public records check revealed that the named borrowers didn’t hold title to the real estate and that the mortgages sold to Fannie Mae had never been recorded

Fannie Mae’s fraud department looked at $1 billion in suspect loans in 2009 and found $650 million to be fraudulent. the loans were bought from lenders such as Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Countrywide Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. “”

This Supreme Court ruling is worse than Citizens United. Candidates with publicly financed campaigns can’t get funds to match privately financed candidates who spend lavishly? Could anyone justify this without sounding like they’re quoting Alice in Wonderland?

The Supreme Court has decided that if you have enough money then you have a right not to have your speech rebutted. What a marvelous “original intent” ruling! No judicial activism there, right?

It somewhat puzzles me that there aren’t any protests against their legislative decisions. Is this because there isn’t a “free speech zone” near the SC building, or is it just not covered by the media? I’m not american myself, but it would seem to me that it should be sort of clear by now that SCOTUS has decided to stop pretending it’s interested in justice (fairness?).

“protests against their legislative decisions”… LMAO… yes, clearly you are not American! Americans complain, or ignore, but would not waste their time on something that would change nothing.

Americans don’t stage protests much, certainly not the way they do in many European countries (though my Danish relatives tell me protesting not big there either). The US is such a huge country with so many sub-groups spread out over it, it’s hard to get momentum going. Also people here have very limited vacation time and days off (even paid sick days are quite limited in many companies). Things are going to have to get much worse before people will take to the streets here.

A friend from a former communist country in Eastern Europe went for the first time to the US, where he was told that “our people (the Americans) would have revolted in the streets, if your (Eastern European) economic situation was inflicted upon them”. Witnessing what is happening to the Americans now (and no squeal from them), I’d say they are no better or braver than the people they used to laugh at or call cowards before 1990.

American society stopped pretending it cared about justice LONG before the government caught up to the people.

We’ve got the exact government we’ve been voting for, for the last 70+ years. Smothering Mommy socialism and Kick-Ass Daddy fascism, fold together for 70 years, half-bake. Serve in front of the TV at room temperature.

There is a graphic at BBC. It shows that annual tax
evasion per person is 3000euro , and the total borrowing 1n 2010 per person was 2125euro.Total spending cuts ~400/yr
What is happening in Greece is a dependency rage.

The UN found that if it ran “feeding stations” at th same locations for too long, impoverished nomads would start settling down around it.And there were riots when the drought say, was over and it tried to close it.
Well the EC banks set up . Where a feeding station in
Greece was set up by the Banks.
While at first I was irate that little was done to alleviate the tax collection problem, I now imagine that the riots would have been far bigger. Perhaps the EU will have to wait til this round of cuts is insufficient. Before the inevitable privatization of the tax system. I do hope that somewhere in the EU or better in Switzerland, a cohort of CPA’s are learning Greek. :)

if they simply paid their taxes for 10 years, their debt would be paid off. It makes you want to smash your pint of Oettingen against the wall and raise your palm at the sky. (jus kidding)

no doubt, however, the average is skewed by a handful of “elite” who technically owe millions and millions, Probably the average Greek without the elite would be a few hundred euros, which goes for cigarettes and ouzo and actually helps juice the economy. if those taxes were paid, they’d just go into a big pocket.

so basically, the wealthy greeks and the banksters are screwing the populace like a Dionysian Goat drills a fluffy sheep with big eyelashes. But we knew that already. LOL.

Hi wunsacon;
One of my sisters had a pet rat for several years. (Really, before she got married. [That’s another story.]) Finally she realized that it was time to return him to his natural habitat. Her biggest challenge was in determining if he belonged in the Bank or the Courthouse.

The only benefit I can see is the tax deduction. Otherwise I would rent, and I imagine many people will consider this in the future, as properties sit vacant in nice suburbs, thanks to the Economic Meltdown.

Not every rental is “a rental”.

I wonder if this potential upsurge will also eventually cause an upsurge in “renters’ rights” legislation….nah, not with the US Supreme Court of the Corporations in charge….

I don’t know if one should suggest this at a time one needs to support one’s local police financially by committing minor traffic violations such as not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, but I think it’s a good idea to give $1000 tax deduction each time one exercise one’s civic duty to vote.

Friends;
Help an old geezer figure the system out here, will you? I saw it mentioned once before how to suggest a newsworthy link to our esteemed hostess. Internet etiquette, si vous plais. (Isn’t that French for ‘look for your own seat?’)
Thanks in advance for your help. The Byte Challenged One.

Christie: my morning run one day last week took me along the boardwalk of a very conservative NJ beach town. The retirees staffing the pavilions and the young cops on mountain bikes were standing in groups trash talking Christie. He’s destroying his base.

As someone who has family that lives near a conservative NJ beach town, and as someone who vacations in same (and enjoys walking the boardwalk), I can tell you that Jersey folk almost always trash talk their governors (of either party). Complaining about the gubment is an ancient human bonding ritual ;) It comes right after talking/complaining about the weather!

Throughout the Constitution’s 202 year history, the Supreme Court has almost always been a critical instrument of class war of the haves against the have-nots. It has championed the rights of the propertied over the propertyless, slaveholders over slaves, and employers over workers. It not only fought for slavery. Later it sought to maintain discrimination. It fought against child labor laws and later against FDR’s New Deal. There has been only been one brief period from Brown (1954) to Roe (1973), the Warren Court era, where this was not completely the case, and for that it has been excoriated by conservatives and the powers that be. It is important to remember that Buckley v. Valeo (1976) came out just a few years later equating money with free speech.

By the time of Bush v. Gore (2000) the Court had long reverted to its previous form. But it was this case which showed the Court’s fundamental politicization and disregard for the democratic process. Citizens United (2010) was simply the natural fulfillment of Buckley v. Valeo and officially established the reality of the last few decades, that we do not have a democratic process but a money process, that money does not equal free speech: it far transcends free speech. The most recent case Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett is just about stamping out what few vestiges of the old democratic system remain.

The Court is really a tour de force example of how extremism can be merchandized, sanctified, and stuffed down the public’s throat by just dressing up a handful of reactionaries in funny looking, antiquated black robes.

The Federal Election Commission Thursday granted faux talk-show host Stephen Colbert a special exemption to establish a corporate-backed political action committee to run ads on his program. Colbert had asked the FEC for permission to create a “Colbert Super PAC” that would produce and air election advertisements, with the assistance of resources provided by Viacom — the parent company of Comedy Central, which airs “The Colbert Report” –- without disclosing the extent of Viacom’s assistance. …

By a 5-1 vote, the commission granted Colbert a limited press exemption. Viacom may provide undisclosed resources to aid the PAC in creating ads that air on “The Colbert Report.” But, the commission declared that the PAC must disclose the value of Viacom resources used to create ads that air on other networks, and to maintain the PAC’s paperwork. Colbert’s appearance energized the normally sleepy goings-on at the FEC.

I excerpted the key bits, suggest reading the whole thing to appreciate the layers of issues this involves (kafka-esque, for sure). Perhaps it’s time to buy stock in Orville Redenbacher.

While it’s not A Modest Proposal, using the whole beside-the-point theatrics as the teaspoon of sugar to cleverly disguise the medicine (bringing money-in-politics more into the public consciousness) is pretty cool, I’d say.

The latest groups the government wants to add to the no-fly list: “potential child abductors” and children traveling with only one parent. (The latter, in order to travel, would need to show TSA and the airline a letter from the other parent authorizing the trip.)

This is a continuing trend. For the past couple of years there have been similar results in the Rasmussen polls, even using slightly differently stated questions. The great majority of the people in the US have MAJOR distrust of the ruling political elites and the institutions they represent, and pretty much assume the elites don’t care anything about the average citizen. However the elites do not seem to care about these poll results regarding their unpopularity.

Geithner is the last remaining top member of President Barack Obama’s original economic team. Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee is planning to leave the administration in August to return to the University of Chicago.

Geithner, 49, has been warning all year of catastrophic consequences if Congress fails to increase the $14.3 trillion statutory borrowing limit and the United States defaults on its debt. …

Geithner, 49, has spent most of his career in the public sector and does not have a university position or banking job waiting for him.

Will have to splurge and buy a really good whiskey. It’s an important ritual to drink to the exiting bankster lord before he is replaced with a new and not-very-differnt bankster lord.

Anyone one to takes bets as to which of the big banks he goes to work for? Or will we be stuck with him heading up the World Bank?

“So the strategy is clear. Surround Russia and China with mobile “missile defense” systems whose job is to take out their retaliatory capability after a U.S. first-strike against their nuclear weapons. Russia and China then build counter-measures to the U.S. missile defense systems and then the Pentagon in return counters with the new “global strike” systems that are today under development.

All this means one thing – an extended arms race with Russia and China which will mean huge profits for the weapons industry and the very likely reality that no effective arms control treaties will be negotiated during this administration. Why would Russia and China negotiate to seriously reduce their nuclear arsenals when the U.S. is surrounding them with missile defense and building new global strike systems?”

Correct.

Since 1947, the Holy Grail for top level US military planners has been to obtain nuclear First Strike capabilities over their opponents.

We are almost there.

Note: Watch out, China! You try to monopolize world petroleum supplies; we kill you (will we suffer 20 to 50 million dead in return. Probably. But it will be a small price to pay for Total Victory, and more importantly, for the last drops of oil).

Possibly one of today’s most important articles, in that it shows VERY clearly that congress no longer has any meaningful power over the banks. The intense full on lobbying battle over this was quite incredible!

The average swipe fee in America is 44 cents, the highest rate in the world. In December, the Federal Reserve released an analysis saying that banks could still make profit by charging 12 cents per transaction, and under the Dodd-Frank financial reform, planned to enforce this cap starting today. …

Yesterday, less than 24 hours before their rules were to go into effect, the Federal Reserve announced it would cap the fees at as high as 24 cents, not 12.

In announcing that the Fed would double the proposed cap, chairman Ben Bernanke said “I think this is the best available solution that implements the will of Congress and makes good economic decisions.” Alongside the Senate fight, Wall Street has also been pressuring the Fed to help them out, and apparently their pleas have been heard.

Clearly this was a bait-and-switch plan from the get go. Wall Street and the Fed are buddies, and teh congress and small business owners got played.

I like Krugman, I can’t help it. He’s a truly funny bastard, and I’ve never met a truly funny bastard who was evil.

Did the Professor spend 30 years on the fringes, or actually in, the evil neo-liberal camp? Yeah, he did.

But, if Krugman chooses to spends his remaining years on the fringes of the MMT camp, I’ll mostly forgive him; and if he courageously joins our camp, I’ll forgive him completely.

Note: Is it possible the confrontation Krugman had with the MMT boys a few weeks back had a noticeable effect on his thinking? Hmm…maybe. Also, I think it’s dawning on the Kruger that there are no sane people left in Washington, and that knowledge is freeing him up to say whatever he wants, because basically; we are all truly and totally fucked, and if there is nothing left to us now ‘cept honorable death, why not go down screaming the truth?

Yves, why hasn’t the deal wrung out of the French banks and in todays bloomberg scroll, the germans say the French plan is a template for their own german banks, why hasn’t this clear restructuring triggered any financial repercussions ? I thought the ECB spent the last year howling that any restructuring even “voluntary” even in the form of lengthened maturities would not be tolerated by them and would trigger larger losses immediately of unknown dimension. It is as if the ECB said there would be H bomb effects on the Eurozone but they are acting as if it is just some mild volcanic cloud from some obscure Icelandic volcano.